THE BIG ONE

Photo: IAFF Local 333
On May 10, 1999, a general alarm engulfed the old Crowell-Collier printing plant at 200 West High Street on the edge of Springfield's downtown. Engine 5, Engine 4 and Battalion 1 were first to arrive at the blaze. READ MORE

AERIAL ATTACK - 2020

Photo: Springfield Fire Division
Masters steams in operation at Springfield, Ohio, industrial site on June 1, 2020.

FAREWELL TO STATION 3

Stars and Stripes lowered one last time

On duty in 1963 with old Engine 3, a 1947 American LaFrance 750 gpm engine. The rig was converted in the 1970s into a foam unit running out of Station No. 1 as Foam 11. 

Fire Station 3 dedication in 1959. The fire officer with his back to the may be Fire Chief Willard G. Compton.

Fire Station No. 3 at 1401 Selma Road opened in 1959. The previous station, built in the 1800s, was located at Selma Road and Homeview Avenue.

Photos: Springfield Fire Rescue Division

On Jan. 3, 2023, Springfield Fire Rescue Division Station No. 3 at 1401 Selma Road was decommissioned after more than 60 years of service. The city has embarked on a project to build four new fire stations to replace older facilities. The official out-of-service time was 1 p.m. Engine 3 made its final fire run to 2167 Scioto on Dec. 23. 2022. On the fire ground, the air temperature was minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of minus 30 and the pump froze, Assistant Chief Matt Smith said. The station opened in 1959.

KING BUILDING - 1956

 

Photos: Wikipedia

Night of raging flames (top) and morning after (below)

On Sept. 15, 1956, a roaring fire engulfed the King Building at 21 South Fountain Ave. in Springfield, Ohio. The King Building was located between the State Theater and the Arcue Building in the heart of downtown. Fire division ladder pipes and master streams propelled cascades of water on the flames breaching the roof and arched-facade. The King Building was owned by the family of Robert Quigley King, who served as Springfield's fire chief from 1879 until 1891.  

RESCUE 1

In 2020, the Springfield Fire Rescue Division placed new Rescue 1 in service - with a ceremonial shove - and retired old Rescue 1, which served the city for 22 years. Rescue 1 is based at Fire Station No. 1 on North Fountain Avenue. 

WOODFORD DRIVE - 2021

Photos: Springfield Fire Rescue Division

Incident report from Springfield Fire Rescue Division Facebook page: "Just after noon on 8/8/21, C Unit was dispatched to 2810 Woodford on a report of a house fire. Responding companies were E5, E7, T4, R1, M4, and Battalion 1. First due companies found heavy fire venting out both the front and back of the house. A transitional attack was started in an attempt slow the fire's progress, but when companies tried to make entry for an interior attack, they found the building was already collapsing inside. All personnel were withdrawn and a defensive strategy was used, with multiple hand lines and the ladder pipe from T4."

FIRST MOTORIZED RIG

Post card of Springfield's first motorized fire engine. The firefighter seated closest to the camera appears to be Fire Chief Samuel Hunter.

PUPPY RESCUE - 1973

 

Firefighters Mike Rucker, Jim Powell. Glenn Caudill, Capt. Bill Murphy (left to right) and Barney at old Fire Station No. 9 in Springfield, Ohio in July 1973

On July 19, 1973, Barney, a curious beagle puppy, wedged himself in an old milk can. Members of the Springfield Fire Division carefully freed him - proving man is a dog's best friend.

The firefighters at old Fire Station No. 9 - at 17 West State Street - first punched a hole in the can so the puppy could get some fresh air. Then tried cooking oil to slide his head. Finally, they went with a metal cutter.

Firefighters Mike Rucker, Jim Powell. Glenn Caudill and Capt. Bill Murphy performed the tender extrication.

These photos from the Springfield News & Sun were transmitted to newspapers across the U.S. by the Associated Press. They were shared with the Springfield Fire Journal by retired Lt. Dave Aills of Rescue Company 1.

LARCH STREET - 2020

Photos: Springfield Fire Rescue Division

Incident report from Springfield Fire Rescue Division Facebook page:

"Just before 0100 on 6/11/2020, B unit was dispatched to 2100 Larch St. on a report of a fire in this building, which was originally built as the Hoppes Manufacturing Co. over 120 years ago. The building now housed a pallet manufacturing factory. First arriving companies found heavy fire already venting through the roof and before it was over, the fire went to a third alarm. Responding companies were E3, E6, E7, T4, T8, R1, M4, M6, Battalion 1, Chief 1, Chief 2, Chief 3, Marshal 1, and Box 27 Associates. The factory building itself was heavily damaged, with only a small part being saved. Larch St is very narrow, and directly across the street is an older residential neighborhood. Many of the houses along Larch suffered radiant heat damage, but quick actions by R1 and T8 on the D side of the factory provided exposure protection hose lines to these homes, and kept them from igniting as well."

SIGNAL 3

 

Photo: Springfield Fire Division 

"Signal 3" was the Springfield Fire Division radio call for a working fire. Judging by the equipment on the scene this could have been a second alarm assignment. Date and address unknown. Probably late 1950s.

HOUSE FIRE -1951

Photo: Springfield Fire Division

Aftermath of April 15, 1951 house fire at 1304-1308 S. Yellow Springs Street in Springfield, identified as the Burke residence. We have no idea what the fireman is holding opposite of his pail. It certainly looks scorched.

COMMAND STAFF - 1905

Photo: Springfield Fire Division

This is the Springfield Fire Division's command staff in 1905 with Fire Chief Samuel Hunter at center. The top and bottom roses are the captains of the city's fire stations - No.1 to No. 8. On the right of Hunter is the superintendent of the fire alarm telegraph system. On Hunter's left is the superintendent of machinery.

AIRLINER CRASH - 1931

The Brighton section of Harmony Township, Clark County, was the scene of an airliner crash on New Year's Eve 1931.

Springfield, O., Jan. 1 -- (AP) -- The death toll of the wreck of a Cleveland-Cincinnati passenger plane rose to four today with the death of W. D. WIEBACK, of Cincinnati, a salesman.

Three men were dead when they were pulled from the smashed ship, near here last night. The pilot remains critically injured.

The cause of the fall was investigated by Capt. Frank McKee, state director of aeronautics, who inspected the wreckage today.

The plane, a single motored craft, enroute from Cleveland to Louisville, was flying low when it went into a barrel roll, according to LEWIS L. BOWEN, of Louisville, the pilot and one of the injured. It plunged 300 feet to bury itself three feet in a muddy field.

The other dead:

A. L. WENNER of Cincinnati, an engineer.

LOUIS E. STONE, 24, of Cincinnati, personnel director of the Embry-Riddle division of the American Airways.

A. C. MAYER, JR., 38, of Louisville, merchandising manager of the General Electric Co. refrigerator division with headquarters at Cleveland.

The plane left Port Columbus at 6:35 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) and was due in Dayton at 7:25. It was reported overdue at Cincinnati at 8 p.m.

Residents of Brighton, near where the crash occurred, reported seeing the craft about 7:30 p.m. apparently in trouble.

Shortly afterward a crash was heard and residents began searching. Two boys located the wreckage nearly two hours later. The three dead apparently had been killed instantly.

The pilot said he had lost control of the plane while trying to regain altitude. He was slightly off his course and was flying low.

TAYLOR MURDER - 1966

On Oct. 29, 1966, the Springfield Fire Division emergency squad responded to 415 Ludlow Avenue for a brutal attack on a mother and her baby. Anita Taylor, 20, died. Her child survived.

Today, it's still a cold case.

The police division report on the slaying said: "The Fire Div. Emergency Squad, consisting of Lt. Olds and Fireman Shook, arrived at the scene and transported the complainant and baby to Community Hospital, where the complainant was pronounced D.O.A. by Dr. Fifer."

A family website is seeking clues at taylorcase.com/

O.S. KELLY PLANT - 1916

On Nov. 13, 1916, flames fanned by wind gusts gutted the  O. S. Kelly Piano Plate Company in Springfield.

The fire started in gas ovens used to manufacture of piano plates and had made significant headway by the time it was discovered by a police officer on patrol.

 "Chief Samuel F. Hunter responded and found the two top floors in flames on the west and gaining eastward, fanned by a high wind," Fire Engineering reported. "The chief was handicapped by a deep creek running along the south side of the building, the creek being forty feet wide.

"He had forty men at the fire and they worked skillfully under his direction and checked the blaze," the magazine said.

Springfield firefighters responded with  an Ahrens motor combination pumper, two American-La France chemical engines, a Seagrave aerial ladder, a Webb pumping engine and four Kelly hose and chemical engines. 

The plant was located at Limestone Avenue and Warder Street.

DAYTON VETERANS - 1942

Image: Department of Veterans Affairs

On May 21, 1942, a two-alarm fire hit the Dayton veterans home, which was undergoing renovations.

XENIA LODD - 1908

On Feb. 3, 1908, two Xenia firefighters died when a brick wall collapsed at a fire at the H. H. Kavey & Co. wholesale grocery store.

Martin Ulery and Joseph Fletcher were manning a hose line at the rear of the building when the wall gave way, according to Fire Engineering magazine. Another firefighter was thrown to the ground by the force of the collapse and injured.

"The flames made their way upward through the elevator-shaft, and before they burst through the roof had been burning fiercely for some time," the magazine said. "The firemen were hindered in their operations by the intense cold and by help given to the flames by the gas which escaped from the broken and melted lines."

Firefighters directed seven streams at the blaze, all at the constant pressure of 85 pounds, which was considered reliable in the early 1900s.

The likely cause was an overheated pipe or spontaneous combustion in the rear of the building.

Decades later, members of the Ohio National Guard lost their lives at the same site when a killer tornado struck Xenia on April 3, 1974, according to the Xenia Fire Division.

HOME INSPECTIONS - 1960

The Springfield Fire Division introduced a home fire safety program in May 1960 and within the first four weeks firefighters completed more than 6,000 inspections. In the photo, pumper crews muster on the ramp at fire headquarters. It is likely truck companies remained at their stations to provide fire cover. Civic organizations provided funds for the program, brainchild of Fire Chief Willard G. Compton.  

CLARK COUNTY COURTHOUSE - 1918

Roaring flames swept the old Clark County Courthouse on March 12, 1918, toppling the bell tower and gutting the interior.

The grand jury room, the common pleas court chamber and the court of appeals chamber were ruined.

Many of the law library's 9,000 volumes were lost.

Fire Chief Samuel Hunter struck a second alarm upon arrival, bringing his entire force to the scene at about 1 a.m.

``Hundreds of feet into the air the flames shot as they encircled the high tower,'' The Sun newspaper said. ``Several lines of hose were used to throw water on the southwest corner in which are kept all the court records of the county ... Two lines of hose were carried to the top of the sheriff's residence and from there water was played on the building.''

Winds carried sparks ``as far down as Spring Street where a dwelling caught fire,'' according to The Sun.

Sheriff James Welch ordered the transfer of inmates from the County Jail to the City Prison as a precaution.

The blaze apparently started near a lavatory on the second floor of the courthouse, which was built in 1878.

GREEN VERSUS RED

Photo: Youngstown Fire

Photo: Big Mack Trucks

"It's not easy being green," Kermit the Frog once said.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield, Dayton and other American cities fielded safety lime and safety yellow fire apparatus to improve visibility and cut down on traffic accidents.

Scientists had determined human eyes are "most sensitive to greenish-yellow colors under dim conditions, making lime shades easiest to see in low lighting," according to the American Psychological Association.

However, later scientific studies determined "recognizing the vehicle was more important than paint color" the APA said. "If people in a particular community don't associate the color lime with fire trucks, then yellow-green vehicles may not actually be as conspicuous."

The trend has since shifted back to red, just like Kermit the Frog's Sesame Street neighbor - Elmo.